According to a preliminary estimate by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 42,850 people died on U.S. highways last year, up from 42,116 in 2001. However, the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled stayed the same at 1.51.

After declining throughout the 1990s, highway fatalities began rising in 1999. The number of fatalities in 2002 is the highest since 1990, NHTSA said.

The agency also noted that 59 percent of those killed in traffic accidents last year were not wearing safety belts and said the number of rollover deaths rose 4.9 percent, from 10,130 in 2001 to 10,626 in 2002.

NHTSA attributed 53 percent of the increase in fatalities in 2002 to rollover crashes involving sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson said the rollover stat reflects both the increasing popularity of sport-utility vehicles and light trucks, and failure of many occupants of those vehicles to fail to buckle up — in recent years, the percentage of unbelted fatalities in SUV rollovers has reached as high as 72 percent. "It's a combination of changes in the fleet and the fact that people for some reason insist on driving without seat belts," Tyson said of the new numbers.

Highway death details:

Alcohol-related deaths climbed to 17,970 from 17,448 in 2001.

The number of children — age 7 or younger — killed dropped to 980 from 1,053.

Motorcycle fatalities rose 3 percent to 3,276, with deaths among drivers 50 and over up 24 percent.

The number of people killed in passenger cars rose to 4,746 from 4,549, a 4.3 percent increase.

The number of people killed in vans fell to 695 from 784, an 11.4 percent decrease.

The number of people killed in SUVs rose to 2,353 from 2,142, a 9.9 percent increase.

The number of people killed in pickup trucks rose to 2,819 from 2,643, a 6.7 percent increase.

The number of people injured in crashes in 2002 was 170,000, up from 155,000 in 2001, a 9.7 percent increase. Of those, 83,000 were in passenger cars (up from 71,000, a 16.9 percent rise), 10,000 were in vans (about the same as last year), 42,000 were in SUVs (up from 38,000, a 10.5 percent rise), and 35,000 were in pickup trucks, (a 2.8 percent decline from 36,000).

Source: NHTSA

California Ends Electric Car Experiment

The California Air Resources Board abandoned a rule that had called for automakers to sell thousands of zero-emission vehicles this year, The Associated Press reported.

Instead, the board adopted a regulation that calls for hundreds of thousands of cleaner gasoline-burning vehicles, tens of thousands of gas-electric hybrids and 250 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the next five years, the AP said.

Board chairman Alan Lloyd said California was not retreating from the original rule's objective of making cars cleaner in the nation's smoggiest state. "It's not backsliding. We're getting vehicles out there in greater numbers that we anticipate being closer to zero," Lloyd said. "In fact, we're probably getting clean air faster."

DaimlerChrysler Profit Falls, But Beats Expectations

DaimlerChrysler AG said its first-quarter profit fell amid heavy price competition and the Iraq war, but its results still topped analysts' forecasts, according to the Associated Press.

DaimlerChrysler said it earned 588 million euros ($646 million) for the first three months of 2003. That's compared to 2.5 billion euros a year earlier, when profits were inflated by the sale of shares in its information systems division.

Chrysler had an operating profit of 152 million euros ($167 million), compared with a loss of 187 million euros the same quarter the previous year. But the company warned that it might not reach its 2003 operating profit goal of $2 billion for the U.S. unit.

DaimlerChrysler said the operating profit at its Mercedes Car Group, boosted by the introduction of a new E-class model, increased 5 percent to 688 million euros ($757 million).

Mitsubishi Profits Soar

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. reported a record profit of 38 billion yen ($317 million) for the fiscal year ending March 31, up from 11 billion yen the previous year.

The company's global sales jumped 10 percent to 3.96 trillion yen ($33 billion), up from 3.2 trillion yen a year earlier, according to preliminary results, with sales in North America rising, for the fourth straight year, by 6.6 percent to 360,000 vehicles.

Nissan Recalls Altimas to Fix Airbags

Nissan will replace the airbags in 248,638 1994 and early 1995 Altima sedans, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced.

NHTSA's investigators found 79 cases of face or eye injury from the bags, of which 22 were moderate and 15 involved severe injuries.

In a letter dated April 11, Nissan told NHTSA it would replace the airbags in all the affected vehicles and the agency closed its investigation, which covered passenger-side airbags.

Nissan said owner notification letters will be mailed starting next week and will continue over the next several months. Altima owners can also call 1-800-NISSAN-1 or talk to local dealers for information.

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